1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a navigation system, a navigation information providing server, and a navigation server for detecting a position of a movable body to perform navigation, and more specifically relates to a technical field of a navigation system, a navigation information providing server, and a navigation server for wirelessly connecting to the Internet to perform navigation, employing map data distributed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a navigation system performing navigation of a vehicle by employing map data has been widely used. In a navigation system like this, navigation is achieved by carrying a GPS (Global Positioning System) to acquire positional data of a movable body and collating them with map data read from a recording medium to operate various applications such as a route search by software.
On the other hand, as a communication device of a movable body, a movable body terminal employing wireless communication such as a portable telephone has diffused rapidly. Recently, this type of movable body terminal can perform not only general communication but also various data transmission/reception by connection to the Internet. Accordingly, when this type of wireless communication function is added to a navigation apparatus described above, for example, it becomes possible to hold map data on the Internet and to download them. In this type of navigation system, since it is not necessary to employ a recording medium on which map data are recorded, the system is convenient for users.
However, adding the wireless communication function for downloading map data to a conventional navigation apparatus causes an increase of the cost of the entire apparatus drastically. Compared with the case wherein map data are provided through a recording medium, it becomes necessary to construct a charging system or the like for the time of downloading map data through the Internet, causing complexity in a system structure.